Online Extras

MORE ON THE BLOG: To read more about politics, campaigns and elections in northwest Pennsylvania, across the state and country, click here.

Today's Summit speakers:- Noon: Ira Byock, M.D., palliative care advocate and best-selling author. He will address "Dying Well in America: Giving and Getting the Best Care Possible Through the End of Life.'' Luncheon and lecture: adults, $20; students, $10.- 7:30 p.m.: Barry Casselman, author, journalist and lecturer who has analyzed and reported on American presidential and national politics since 1972. The Erie native will address "The Votes Are In: What's Next for American Politics?'' Adults, $20; students, $10.

Ornstein, speaking on the third day of the Jefferson Educational Society's four-day Global Summit, told about 200 people Thursday that he called Rove the day after the presidential election.

Ornstein said he told Rove -- who spoke Wednesday night in Erie -- that "depression is fully covered under Obamacare.''

During his speech, Ornstein mixed in humor amid the serious topics of partisan gridlock, the "fiscal cliff'' and President Barack Obama's re-election.

Ornstein is a longtime observer of Congress and politics who writes a weekly column for Roll Call and serves as an election analyst for CBS News. He's also a regular contributor to the New York Times and the Washington Post.

His latest political book, written with Thomas Mann, is called "It's Even Worse Than It Looks.''

Ornstein said he and Mann, who have been in Washington, D.C., for 43 years, have "never seen it this dysfunctional.''

"Tribal in nature'' is how he described the polarization in the nation's capital. "If you're for it, I'm against it even if I was for it yesterday,'' said Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, one of the nation's largest think tanks.

The pushback against Obama worked in the 2010 congressional midterm elections, he said, but it didn't work this year. Several factors were at play, Ornstein said.

He said Republicans face a gender gap with women who make up more of the electorate than men, an age gap with more younger voters supporting Obama, and a marriage gap with a growing number of people being single -- whether by choice or not.

Single people, Ornstein said, tend to vote Democratic.

Republicans also faced other demographic obstacles this election cycle, he said.

Many Asian Americans are professionals and "upwardly mobile,'' he said, which sounds like a natural fit for the Republican Party. But most Asian Americans are not Christian, so a Christian-leaning message about America from the GOP did not resonate well with them, he said.

Exit polls showed that Democrats won at least 71 percent of the Hispanic vote, and even more troubling for the GOP is that Cuban Americans are "moving in a Democratic direction,'' he said. Cuban Americans have historically voted Republican.

The Hispanic vote makes Florida a problem for Republicans and it could become a problem for the GOP in Texas, too, he said.

The Republican turnaround on immigration reform is "one of the most dramatic things to come out of the election,'' Ornstein told the Erie Times-News before the lecture. "But there's also a mistaken belief that if you just flip that switch, Hispanics will automatically support you,'' he said.

As for the looming "fiscal cliff,'' Ornstein said there's a chance that a template for increased revenue and spending cuts can be enacted to avoid it. But even if a deal isn't reached by the end of the year, he said, the nation won't fall off the cliff because the president has "a lot of executive authority to make it more of a slope.''

Online Extras

MORE ON THE BLOG: To read more about politics, campaigns and elections in northwest Pennsylvania, across the state and country, click here.

Today's Summit speakers:- Noon: Ira Byock, M.D., palliative care advocate and best-selling author. He will address "Dying Well in America: Giving and Getting the Best Care Possible Through the End of Life.'' Luncheon and lecture: adults, $20; students, $10.- 7:30 p.m.: Barry Casselman, author, journalist and lecturer who has analyzed and reported on American presidential and national politics since 1972. The Erie native will address "The Votes Are In: What's Next for American Politics?'' Adults, $20; students, $10.